No Strings On Me
by FangirlFTW
Summary: Emi Abeyama is an orphan found half-dead in the desert by a recently defected Sasori. She convinces him to come back to the village and teach her to be as strong as he is, and it doesn't take long for a crush to take hold of her. Feelings she knows will never be requited. AU, Sasori/OFC
1. Prologue

Prologue

Emi dragged herself up the dunes, crawling on her hand and knees. The mangled remains of her left arm were poorly wrapped with a piece of her cowl that she had ripped off. The shard of bone she had broken off from the bloody and ripped stump was strapped to her thigh. She had screamed when she did it, but she needed the make shift blade to cut into the prickly-pear for its watery pulp. But it been hours since she had last had a drink and she was delirious from the heat.

Emi didn't know where she had gone wrong. She had just thought that red-headed boy with the tattooed forehead had looked lonely. She tried to play with him, but then the sand around her started to attack her. Emi only just barely ripped away from it and then she ran, she ran, she ran. She ran straight into the harsh and unforgiving desert. The guards at the gate didn't stop her. A parentless street urchin wasn't worth the bother. It was, of course, when she had run too far into the desert that she realized she was lost and couldn't get back. And that her left arm had been ripped off by the sand.

It was the second day now, and she was close to death. She had almost gone in the freezing night, but so stubborn was she and so strong was her will that she had just clung to her life. And so now, she trudged on, sliding through the dunes.

That is, until, she came across a beautiful boy walking through the desert. A boy with a shining crown of crimson hair and wide, owlish brown eyes. Emi sat back, pitifully in the sand, staring up at the boy in awe. His lips moved, but Emi couldn't make out his words. A sudden fear shot through her heart. In her delirium, she believed this beautiful boy to be Death, here to whisk her spirit away. And little nine-year-old Emi Abeyama was not ready to die.

So, crying out, Emi yanked her bone-knife from its place strapped to her leg and jammed it into Death's leg.

She heard Death laugh before exhaustion took hold and Emi passed out in the sand.


	2. Chapter 1

Emi learned that the beautiful boy's name was Sasori and that he was five years older than her. She knew of him, of course. Everyone in the Sand knew about Sasori of the Red Sand, the child soldier turned war hero. Sasori the deserter. She also learned that he had carried her prone body through the harsh desert to his home in a small village at the edge of the desert. He cleaned her arm. The mangled bits had to be cut away, leaving a clean stump ending just above where her elbow would have been. Emi learned that Sasori was currently nursing her back to health because he found her intriguing. Sasori had saved her life on a whim. Right now, he was rubbing an aloe based salve onto her sun burns.

"You're lucky you were blessed with dark skin, little girl. Your burns would be much worse if you were fair."

He was right, of course. Dark skin, while surprisingly rare in the Sand, was looked down upon as a sign of being low class. However, to those that didn't care anything for class, dark skin was to be envied for its ability to withstand the harsh rays of the sun. Sasori, with his barely tanned ivory complexion, was one such individual. This was not what was on Emi's mind, though.

"Why won't you return to the Sand? I'm sure your grandmother misses you."

Sasori paused in his ministrations before continuing.

"Not that it's your business, brat, but because she lied to me and she allowed to be conscripted into an adult's war as a child."

Emi frowned.

"You say that like you're not a child now. You're only 14."

At this, Sasori stopped completely and looked Emi in the eyes.

"War makes you grow up, Emi."

That was the end of the conversation.


	3. Chapter 2

"Return to the Sand with me. Please, Sasori."

Weeks had passed since Sasori had taken Emi in. Her arm was healed and she was more well-nourished than she had ever been in her lifetime.

"We've discussed this, brat. I'm not going back. Not even for you."

Sasori had grown fond of Emi and had even told her that he would be sad to see her go. But not sad enough.

"Please, Sasori, come back. Be a shinobi again, I know that you miss it."

Sasori gave her a scathing glare and set his tea cup down. He left the room. Emi cried.

* * *

"On two conditions, brat, will I go back. You must let me train you to become a shinobi and you will not press me to see my grandmother."

"Done."


End file.
